The Circus (United Artists) (1928)

“THE CIRCUS” IS COMING TO TOWN From the thumping praise-drums of Hollywood and the suave type¬ writers of Times Square come ad¬ vance notices of a new movie, “The Circus,” which comes to the. Theatre,. In this glorifi¬ cation of the cacophonous pageant of every childhood there is paradox¬ ically, no noise; for it is of the silent drama. “The Circus” was written, produced, directed and acted in its chief role by Charlie Chaplin. Eecently, sophisticated magazines have been telling in droll paragraphs of a visit made by Chaplin to New York last summer, when he became ac*" ainted with the Feitelbaums and Looeys of le M. Milt. Gross. They do say, too, that Chaplin and Gross sat in a Sixth Avenue restaurant and talked into the latest hours and that the result of their converse was an invitation from the comedian to the comic artist to sit in as advisory counsel on “The Circus.” The out¬ growth of that conversation seems to have been that Mr. Gross went to Hollywood, composed some of the “gags”—as cinematic lexicographers term comic sequences—of “The Cir¬ cus” and then departed homeward because he liked New York. While in New York Chaplin ex¬ plained his employment of “gag men” by asserting the negligibility of plot. He said that in “The Cir¬ cus,” characterization, which is so easily picturized through extreme incidents that amount to moving caricatures, will be the thing. “Pro¬ ducers assert that the public wants this, that or the other—battle, mur¬ der and sudden death in evening dress and smoking jacket. But if you have the neatest tailored plot in the world, and have not living characters, you have nothing,” said Chaplin. Among the peanut shells and the sawdust rings under the commonly denominated “big top” which was erected on the Chaplin lot in Holly¬ wood, _ there was enacted between Chaplin and his new leading lady, an eighteen-year-old girl named Merna Kennedy, many incidents which go so far to give atmosphere -avr character to a film and guffaws to ’tne customers. One of these scenes, the ballyhoo man reports, depicts Charlie on a tight rope. It is generally known that as a retained part of his vaude¬ ville training Chaplin can walk the taut or slack wire with some degree of success. However, in “The Cir¬ cus” he is faking it, visibly sup¬ ported by a thin, strong wire, which the circus audience cannot see. Sure of himself, the brave fellow teeters up and down the wire daringly, con¬ temptuous of a band of howling monkeys below. Then the wire snaps. Unaware that his overhead sup¬ port has broken, Charlie keeps on skipping up and down the length of the wire, a veritable lilt in his step. Suddenly he spies the dangling w’’”o before his eyes. He looks up. He looks down at the monkeys. He looks at the wire, and his face goes white. Down from his eminence comes the .brave fellow, proud before his fall. According to the advance inform¬ ation at hand, Chaplin’s circus story is woven of just ludicrous situations. It is “built for laughter,” and is “a Good Ones Before Opening GHARUE CHAPUIST CIRCUS" CR-4—Two-Col. Scene (Mat 10c, Cut 50c) low-brow comedy for high-brows.’' From the Chaplin studios comes this candid anonuncement: “While it contains some whimsical ingredients and a dash of love in¬ terest, the story is devoid of any extreme pathos or tragedy.” Fur¬ ther, one is assured that “although the action centers around the ‘big tops,’ Charlie does not appear in the usual garb of the circus funny men, but in his own peculiar habiliments of old.” There will be, then, the baggy pants, the trick little hat and the cane, those mammoth shoes— didn’t he eat one in “The Gold Rush?”—and the mustache. Only the Barnum phrase, “Bigger and Better than Ever” is missing. Originally, it seems, Georgia Hale, the lady of “The Gold Rush” epi¬ sodes, was to play in “The Circus,” but Chaplin allowed her to accept offers from other companies. A friend suggested to Chaplin that he visit the Mason Opera House, Los Angeles, and there consider the charms of a girl named Merna Ken¬ nedy, then playing a comedy role in “All For You,” a musical piece. Being five feet two, with eyes of blue, Merna got the job. In the interesting circus history which Charlie Chaplin learned dur¬ ing preparation of “The Circus,” his new United Artists comedy, which is at the.Theatre, was the fact that the right name of “Gen¬ eral Tom Thumb,” Barnum’s famous midget, was Charles Haywood Strat¬ ton. He was born near Bridgeport, Conn., January 4, 1838, and died at his residence at Middleboro, Mass., July 15, 1883. In 1863 “General Tom Thumb” was married to Lavinia Warren. PUTS MAGICIAN IN “THE CIRCUS” The man who pulls ducks from the folds of his coat and bowls of goldfish from under his vest and rabbits from out of his sleeves in Charlie Chaplin’s new United Art¬ ists picture, “The Circus,” is (leorge Davis. “The Circus” is at the .theatre. Four generations of the Davis family have been identified with the stage and in fourteen different coun¬ tries throughout the world either one or another Davis has • appeared in theatrical work of some character. George Davis is well known in the United States, where from his boy¬ hood he has been before the public, behind the footlights. Only recently Davis completed an extended tour over the Keith and Orpheum circuits of vaudeville theatres and before this he was under contract with the Dillingham interests for a period of seven years. Thirty years ago Davis was born at Brussels, of French and English parentage. He had a brief career in motion picture work in Paris as a member of the Gaumont and Eclaire companies and then fol¬ lowed in the footsteps of his ances¬ tors. Now he is permanently en¬ gaged in Hollywood. Charlie Chaplin was impressed with the work of Davis as a stage comedian when he witnessed his per¬ formance at a Los Angeles theatre and it was soon after that Davis was made a member of the person¬ nel of “The Circus.” In the pic¬ ture Davis portrays the character of a magician. “CIRCUS” FIGURES SHOW IT BIGGEST COMEDY Some idea as to the physical mag¬ nitude of Charlie Chaplin’s produc¬ tion, “The Circus,” which comes to the.Theatre., may be had from figures compiled by George Webster, general statistician at the Chaplin studio. Livestock housed at the Chaplin plant in Hollywood for a peripd of more than a year included elephants, lions, tigers, horses, mules, monkeys, pigs, dogs, cats, ducks, pigeons and geese. To properly feed and care for such an assortment of guests the commissary department was required to handle for many months, food items that totalled more than sixty thousand pounds, the greater bulk of this being in beef and tons of hay, corn, carrots, potatoes and bread. During filming of scenes under the circus tent and surrounding grounds, in some instances where 2,000 women, children and men were gathered, the necessary “fixings” for an assemblage of this character called for 3,000 gallons of lemonade; 3,622 bottles of soda pop; 2,602 bags of peanuts; 1126 rolls of popcorn; 6706 frankfurters—and an equal number of rolls; 1,617 sticks of chewing gum; 1,282 lollypops and 1,806 pretzels. Additional figures show that 23,- 000 yards of canvas; 1,900 tons of sawdust; 7,000 yards of rope; 61 kegs of nails; 1,000 yards of wire; 42,000 feet of lumber and 14,000 gallons of water were required. When this statement of facts was placed before Charlie for his scru¬ tiny, the comedian dryly remarked, “A statistician’s work must be most interesting. But I note we didn’t use any butter!” MR. REEVES SHATTERS SOME CHAPLIN MHHS Alfred Reeves, General Manager of the Charlie Chaplin Studios, ex¬ ploded a series of Chaplin myths during production of “The Circus,” Charlie’s new United Artists com¬ edy, which comes to the . Theatre. Since Mr. Reeves has been associated with Charlie Chaplin since that comedian joined the Fred Karno Troupe in England, he speaks with authority. Billie. Reeves, Alf’s brother, played in America, from 1905 to 1910, th^ part of an elderly drunk¬ en gentleman who persisted in top¬ pling out of a box during the course of “A Night in an English Music Hall,” one of the Karno acts. When Alfred Reeves returned to England he told Karno that young Chaplin was good enough for the Billie Reeves role, and so it was that Chaplin came to America in 1910, remaining in the Karno Troupe un¬ til November, 1913, when he went with films via Keystone comedies. Mr. Reeves says that Charlie Chaplin never appeared at Ham- merstein’s Opera House in New York City; that Billie Reeves played the role then. But Chaplin did play the whole Percy Williams’ Circuit of houses in New York and Brook¬ lyn, including the Alhambra, Colo¬ nial, Gotham and Orpheum thea¬ tres; as well as the Sullivan & Con- sidine Circuit in the Middle West.